THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 121 

 MODIFIED MILK. 



The term " Modified milk " is claimed to have been originally used 

 by the Walker-Gordon Laboratories, to describe milks that have by 

 the addition of water and milk sugar, and at times barley water and 

 iimewater, been mechanically changed in their chemical consti- 

 tuents to fill physicians' prescriptions, and to increase or decrease 

 these constituents according to an exact method, so that physicians 

 may be enabled to order a milk that can be adjusted to meet the 

 needs of the individual case for which it is prescribed. If the child 

 be artificially fed, there is reason to believe that milk, when modified 

 to conform as nearly as possible to the composition of mother's milk, 

 comes nearest to supplying the demands of the infant, and it is to 

 meet this very considerable and constantly increasing demand that 

 certain formulae have been prepared for feeding the infant during 

 the successive stages of its early existence. 



NUTRITIVENESS OF MODIFIED MILK. 



No adequate comparison can be made between modified milk (raw 

 or pasteurized) and ordinary market milk as regards its nutritive 

 qualities, since milk is customarily modified according to physicians' 

 prescriptions for special use, and while designed in many instances 

 to furnish a more easily digested and assimilated food than whole 

 milk, is supposably, in other instances, less digestible than milk in 

 its natural state. Aside from is facility of digestion ordinarily, 

 modified milk is prescribed with a view to furnishing the maximum 

 amount of nutritive food which may be absorbed without prejudice. 

 Modified milk may, it should be added, contain a greater or less pro- 

 portion of each nutrient found in raw milk. Its use is especially 

 recommended for infants, invalids, and convalescents. The Straus 

 Laboratory, of this city, contends that modified milk is as nutritious 

 and more so than raw milk, since it is an attempt to reproduce 

 mother's milk as closely as possible, and is changed to suit the vary- 

 ing ages and strength of babies. 



Dr. G. Lloyd Magruder, of this city, has addressed a letter to 

 President Taft, asking that the Department of Agriculture and the 

 Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service of the Treasury Depart- 

 ment be directed to investigate the relative merits of raw and pas- 

 teurized milk for infant feeding. It is believed that a careful ex- 

 amination into this important subject by these departments of the 

 United States Government would be of inestimable value in affording 

 an authoritative basis for harmonizing the differences of opinion 

 which have existed for many years past on this vital question. 



SUSCEPTIBILITY OF MODIFIED MILK TO DETERIORATION. 



As to the relative susceptibility to deterioration, Dr. Melvin states 

 that there is probably no difference between modified and whole (raw 

 or pasteurized) milk in this respect, if both are obtained and handled 

 under similar conditions. 



